sexing mallard ducks by feathers

[Chriswardens52]

I have 5 mallard ducklings. They are all feathering out and I have a question on what sex they are. One thing I was questioning is their back feathers. I notice that three of the ducklings have dark colored feathers coming in, but I noticed that there is a dark green tint to them. The other two have light colored brown feathers. I was thinking that the ones with the dark green tinted feathers are male and that the light colored brown feathered ones were female.

 

[Senna95]

If they just got their first feathers it's easier to voice sex them. Pick them up one at a time, and wait for them to either quack or squeek. The quackers are females and the squeekers are males.

 

[Kaitie09]

Our ducks are 4 months and the drake just finally got his coloring. We were able to tell by voice around 4-6 weeks. One thing I did notice first was that the drake back feathers started greying around 6weeks too.

this is when I first started to notice the difference.

 

[SassyKat6181]

My drakes had a green tint on the heads starting about 6 weeks. I could also tell by their raspy voices that they were males.

 

[lovesgliders]

Thanks so much for posting this thread! I found it very helpful as I am hoping to sex my Mallard ducklings soon, too! (Though I still have a little bit of a wait as they are only 2 weeks old)

 

[Speceider]

The best way to sex mallards from plumage is to look at the tertial coverts. If they have white edging, it's hen. No edging a drake. That's for wild-type mallrds. Thje drake in the pic isn't true wild-type because he has too much edging on his tertials, so it probably wouldn't work on him.

Clint

 

[Kaitie09]

Quote:
Yes, he is not a wild Mallard. We got them at TSC.

 

[Chriswardens52]

and what are the tertial coverts